Hydraulic log splitters in prevalent use are quite heavy and expensive in that they are an integral part of a trailer equipped with its own gasoline engine and its own hydraulic pressure system including a pump driven by the engine, a fluid reservoir, and a four-way control valve for actuating the hydraulic cylinder of the log splitter. For highway travel the log splitter trailer which is of 7 to 8 foot length from the trailer hitch must be equipped with stop lights and tail lights and when the towing vehicle is a passenger car, a station wagon, or like motor vehicle, off-road travel of the towing vehicle and the log splitter trailer to the location of the logs to be split may be impossible or difficult in soft or rough terrain or if backing or turning of the trailer in close quarters is required.
In another known form of hydraulic log splitter equipped with its own four-way control valve for the splitter cylinder, the cylinder end of the splitter beam has a vertically extending frame detachably connected to a hydraulically powered tractor hitch to extend rearwardly from between the drive wheels with the splitter control valve being connected by flexible hoses to the pump of the hydraulic system of the tractor.